The present invention relates in general to electrical connectors, and in particular to a clip for hingedly supporting a socket beneath the cooking platform of an electric range, a removable surface heating element plugging into the socket.
It is known in the art to provide a plurality of hinge-mounted sockets beneath the cooking platform of a domestic range of the electric type, each socket being electrically connected to a plug-in type surface heating element supported by a bowl-like drip pan nested in an aperture in the cooking platform. Two or more rigid terminal pin portions of the heating element project downwardly from the heating surface of the circular element and then extend radially outwardly through the apertured sidewall of the drip pan in a horizontal direction for engagement with the socket.
To facilitate cleaning of the cooking platform, the drip pan, and the range surfaces beneath the drip pan, the heating unit is tilted upwardly out of its nested position within the drip pan and then unplugged. Pivotal movement of the associated hinge-mounted socket permits the noted tilting and removal of the heating element to in turn permit removal of the drip pan.
Over the relatively long life of a domestic range of the type under consideration, the clip structure for hingedly mounting the heating element socket to the cooking platform can be subjected to repeated thermal expansion and contraction cycles that may eventually cause failure of the clip structure. Thus, long term reliability is an important concern in designing a suitable clip structure. Further, merely designing a heavy duty clip structure to handle the noted thermal cycles is not a plausible solution, since the increased cost of such a heavy duty clip structure would not be acceptable in the highly competitive domestic appliance business. It is also desirable that the clip structure be of a simple design which not only permits upward tilting and removal of the associated heating element but also provides spring biasing of the heating element downwardly into and against the drip pan to maintain the associated heating element in a normal horizontal position generally parallel with the cooking platform even after repeatedly removing and reinstalling the heating element over the lifetime of the range.